And another thing...

[altivo]

...about having this stupid detour going past our house: the litter is gross. People are pigs. It's appalling what they throw out their car windows. Obviously they feel no responsibility for the trash they strew around, none whatsoever.

I've decided to keep count of the waste from McDonald's and send them a bill at the end of the season. (Nearest McDonald's is four miles away, but their wrappings and crap are ending up in my driveway and on my grass.)

Comments

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

I just love looking at a beautiful picture I've taken only to find a beer can hiding on the edge of it. Oh wait, no I don't.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, you gotta love that. When I take a walk in a forest or so and leave the paths (or when there are no paths to begin with), I sometimes come across trash; I usually take it with me then, since otherwise, it'll probably stay there for years.

I don't get people sometimes.

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

We would be interested in how it goes with altivo v the golden arches.

On Orust people have summer houses and they throw their rubbish in roadside ditches in plastic bags and because summer house people seem to have summer house brains - most of the rubbish is takeaway cartons this and pizza boxes that, tomato sauce bottles and beer cans. One never sees ingredient packaging in those ditches.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I hate the cigarette ends that people discard all over the place.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Gad even I don't get much rubbish dropped on our street and its suburbia. Although I like to think we're pretty tidy in our suburb :)

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Dear Rider.

We get the same thing here, mostly fast-food stuff. But also cans, bottles, and the constant accumulation of freebie newspapers around our mailbox in their usually blue wrappers. I am always amazed how many people (I would guess mostly young) toss the whole bag and often the drink cup from the fast-food places out the window. Huh? Ever heard of a trash bag in your car?

I have NEVER done that. I will admit to tossing occassional cigarette butts out and even a gum wrapper or three in past years. But why not just keep the trash until you get home and put it in the trash? Are you that lazy a bastard piece of crap who is so selfish and self-centered and self-important you think it is fine to litter up everybody ELSES road in front of their place? I doubt you would do that on your OWN FRONT LAWN!

Of course there are fines for littering but it is nearly impossible to catch much less prove.

I think Alaska is the worse, however. I like the Adopt a Highway and often see people walking along picking up the litter. Several I see here regularly are older guys or hippie-looking guys on bicycles, joggers and older couples. Sometimes prisoners in groups and in Alaska it was often the military along the highway that runs in front of the bases and forts.

That helps restore some faith in humanity.

Imp

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

I can think of several t-shirt phrases that come to mind when I hear about things like this. People are stupid.

I'm sorry to hear about the trash blowing on your property. That's no good.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Oh, yuck. I really don't get how people think it's ok to behave like that.

I'm uncomfortable enough with people throwing apple cores and other biodegradable stuff out of a car, let alone plastic trash. Gnah.

A curious mind asks curious questions.

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

On one hand I applaud your idea of sending McNumbnutz a bill, i want to ask you about the concept of responsibility a little....

...now keep in mind, I neither like litter or fast food establishments, but...

The concept of responsibility... *ponders* I take it you were raised to clean up after yourself. I also take it this was instilled in you primarily by your parents. Being responsible, hmmm... what does it stand for to you?

Also, why do you believe others should act accordingly? for nature? For civilization? Or is it something else?

[soanos.livejournal.com]

I remember when I lived in the UK for a while, and I picked up a candy wrapper some stupid kid threw on the ground a few meters away from the litter bin and put it in the bin.

Everyone, I mean EVERYONE in vicinity turned and looked at me like I was a friggin' alien from another planet.

No, I am just a Finn.

I think it is just upbringing of kids these days. When I was young, we were taught to put the rubbish in the bin, or if a bin is not available, in the pocket until there is a litter bin available.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I agree. While it's interesting or amusing to dig up something like that from 100 years ago, it's just obnoxious when people toss things around now as if the landscape didn't matter, and it was someone else's job to clean up their filth.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's simple. If you ever needed proof of evolution, that humans are nothing but conceited apes, there it is.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't even expect a response from the McDonald's. They don't care.

As for summer people, it's not just them, or at least not here in the US. I watch what people buy at the supermarket. Not one in five buys ingredients from which to prepare food any more. Perhaps one in three does buy fresh vegetables or fruit and that's about it. The majority are only buying prepackaged foods that can be "prepared" by shoving them in a microwave or an oven, and snack foods that are eaten right from the packages. Cooking is now considered "demeaning" and too much bother. Only crazy people do it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that has long been a peeve with me. Interestingly, though, that particular kind of litter actually is declining here. Smoking is on the way out, thank goodness. The social pressure has grown so strong that smokers are embarrassed about their nasty habit and hide it.

Quite a turnaround from 12-15 years back, when cigars were a fad. Now THAT really created disgusting litter. I can remember walking through downtown Chicago and thinking the streets were filled with dog droppings, but they turned out to be cigar butts.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I've never felt the need to smoke. Going to pubs is much more pleasent these days. But more cigarette ends are on the floor outside as a result.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's a cultural thing. People in the US have never been particularly tidy, I'm afraid, but since the 1960s things had been improving. Now it seems to be declining again, in an era when consideration for others is thought to be "out of date" and everyone is only interested in personal gratification.

Teens are the worst, but a surprising number of adults have no concern whatsoever about the amount of trash they generate or what happens to it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are still people who care. Unfortunately, there are an increasing number of others who will shout "treehugger" at them and toss a beer can or butt in their face.

It varies from state to state, and city to city, too. Some have a culture of tidiness, and some are the opposite. My brother used to say that in Texas it was considered really "lily-livered" to pick up your trash and take it away. "Real men" were expected to throw beer cans and bottles out the window of their pickup truck as they drove along. Perhaps that was some backlash against Lady Bird Johnson's attempts to beautify America back in the 60s.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It has always been a problem here, but increased traffic on the road makes it much worse. Yes, people are stupid, selfish, lazy, and inconsiderate. If I needed any proof that humans are just big-headed apes, I consider this to be adequate.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Plastic trash is the worst. The entire countryside here is littered with those flimsy plastic bags they use at supermarkets and other retailers. I think more than half of them end up blowing about the country until they snag in trees and flap there for years.

And just think, those are made from crude oil. Not a renewable resource, yet finding a way to recycle them is next to impossible. For a while some supermarkets here would accept them back, but that has stopped.

Re: A curious mind asks curious questions.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

People should not throw trash around where someone else has to pick it up. That is simply rude, inconsiderate, and selfish. I suppose some of them would take a crap on my lawn too, like stray dogs, if they thought they could get away with it. Come to think of it, when we lived in Chicago there were people who would throw used disposable diapers out car windows so someone else had to deal with them.

Honestly, I am puzzled that you would ask this question. Human litter, especially plastic, is damaging to the environment in many different ways. It injures wildlife. It is unsightly. It can create pollution and fire hazards. It can even be a safety hazard along roads. I've actually had one of those stupid plastic bags fly into my windshield and stick there, obscuring my vision while I was driving, for instance.

Making someone else clean up after you as if you were a helpless or spoiled child is immature. Yes, it's irresponsible too. Responsibility is considering the consequences of your actions and owning up to them. It is also doing something about the problems you cause.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've had that experience here. "Why would you bother? What's wrong with you?" is the attitude some people take when you bother to pick up trash.

Cultures vary in their attitudes toward this sort of thing. I'd have expected the British to be among the tidier types, but perhaps not. Or perhaps it differs between the Scots and the Welsh and the English.

America used to be really bad in this respect, and I think it grew out of an attitude that there was plenty of open land and who cared if some of it became just a trash dump. We still see a lot of it along roadways because it is dropped by people who are entirely focused on the beginning and end points of a journey and nothing along the way is real or matters to them.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Yah, we get that too out by work (At home its
beer bottles and such by the side of the road).

You save all that stuff, and ask to see the manager
and dump it, wet and stinking, on his desk.

"You have an explination for this on my property?"

Hopefully its one of those anal rententive sorts
that will huff and whine as you peer down at
him.

I hate litter. Theres so much wrong with the
world and people have to act like this is
Zimbabwe or the Middle Ages.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Selfishness and greed have no boundaries. When you look at the behavior of human "leaders" and "role models" it is no wonder that the majority of the population acts as badly as it does.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

It is the older generation who still stay tidy. It is this last one that is in their teens and early 20's at the moment that are the worst.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I agree, though I'd point out that
the smell of shitty attitudes does
percolate upwards too. The masses
are not Noble Savages after all.

We do need real leaders however,
not politically, but philosophically
and spiritually;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_QWktuJLhc